Meet Tom Fuerst, Senior Pastor

I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my family. I’m 42 years old, I grew up in central Missouri. My wife, Cassie, and I have been married for 19 years. We have 4 children, Phoebe (13), Tommy (11), Junia (10), and Kobie (7). You will undoubtedly see them running around the church, eating leftover communion bread, and otherwise charming the congregation.

I’ve been in full-time pastoral ministry since 2010, when I was an associate at Lynn Haven UMC near Panama City, FL. In 2013, I was hired by Christ United Methodist in Memphis to preach each week and lead their theological education efforts. Five years later Bishop McAlilly asked me to start a Methodist congregation in Memphis, which eventually became Bluff City Church.

I have an insatiable love of learning and have a deep need to express and explore my curiosity about the world. I read endlessly (mostly non-fiction) and always appreciate good recommendations. I also love St. Louis Cardinals baseball, Kansas City Chiefs football, and Grizzlies basketball. When I’m not reading or watching sports, you can find me lifting weights at Planet Fitness or running a few miles around my neighborhood.

I’m deeply grateful that you have invited me to be your pastor. I think this is going to be a wonderful season of life for both of us.

Tom

Books By Tom

Prophetic Peril: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century African American Prophetic-Call Narratives

Prophecy reimagines the world. It critiques what is and encourages its audience to imagine what could be. All prophecy, therefore, begins with a person willing to reimagine their own situation. In the biblical and African American traditions, this person receives a “call” to prophetic ministry that upends their reality and compels them to change the way things are. Prophetic Peril: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century African American Prophetic-Call Narratives invites readers into the imaginative, subversive, and ethically complicated stories of four nineteenth-century Black figures who received the call to challenge the what is and live into the what could be in the midst of a hard-hearted world.

Focusing on the prophetic-call narratives of Maria Stewart, Nat Turner, Julia Foote, and Richard Allen, author Thomas M. Fuerst offers insight into the unique contributions this tradition makes to American oratory, storytelling, history, ethics, theology, and protest. As Fuerst demonstrates, Turner’s call narrative subverts white, political interests and expands politics to include the resistance rhetoric and witness of those on the margins. Allen’s apologetic narration combines deeply thoughtful Protestant exegesis with a liberation theology shaped by the experience of enslavement, anchoring his rhetorical power in the experience of Black people in the nineteenth century. The call narratives of Stewart and Foote circumvent patriarchy and resist patriarchal interpretations of the Bible through biblical, embodied, dramatic, visionary appeals that sidestep persuasion and demand either acceptance or rejection. Taken together, these case studies reveal how antebellum Black preachers used religious storytelling to resist white, patriarchal oppression and assert their own voices, offering unique insight to our understanding of prophecy and resistance.

THE JOURNEY OF GRIEF

Did you know that our minister is a book author? His latest work is now available!

"The Journey of Grief: Traversing Our Sorrows Together" by Tom Fuerst (Author), Chad Foster (Editor), and Jonathan Powers (Editor) can now be ordered on Amazon.

Several of our Memphis First United Methodist Church members and friends also contributed to this book.

"With a down-to-earth writing style, Journey Through Grief walks with you in the mess of grief rather than hovering over or above you. The writers all believe that God meets us in this mess. The journey is, therefore, sacred." - The Journey of Grief: Traversing Our Sorrows Together

Underdogs and Outsiders

The Bible is full of surprises. At every turn, from the beginning of the Old Testament right through the end of the New, we find God working in unexpected, even strange ways to bring about God's purposes. During Advent, remembering this strange history of God working in our world helps us look forward to the birth of God's Son, Jesus. As if to remind us of this, the Gospel of Matthew presents a genealogy of Jesus before telling the story of his birth, including subtle references to the times God worked through unlikely people. Matthew names five women in the family tree of Jesus: Tamar, a forgotten daughter-in-law and widow; Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a foreigner; the wife of Uriah, an adulteress; and of course Mary, a young virgin. This Advent study explores the stories of each of these five women, showing how they all played a pivotal role in God's purposes. By learning about these underdogs and outsiders, readers will uncover new dimensions of the story of God's people and how that story comes into focus in the hope for the Messiah. Through the Old Testament stories the Gospel draws upon, Matthew reminds us to look for God in unexpected places during this Advent season. This Bible study is designed to be used by individuals and small groups during Advent. In addition to the main content, each chapter offers questions for reflection and discussion, a brief prayer, and a focus for the week. The weekly focus emerges from the chapter content and encourages the readers to engage a spiritual practice or do something specific that will help them grow in faith.